International Journal on Criminology
plex phenomenon to a single cause . Hugo Micheron does not fall into this trap ; in fact , he defines and distinguishes them very carefully .
Behind this academic quarrel over the sociological or religious interpretation of the jihadist phenomenon are hidden power struggles to appoint young PhDs as lecturers , to secure positions in the humanities , to attract funding , to influence public policy , to impose themselves as experts on jihadism in the mainstream press , public radio , and continuous information channels . The képéliens control Sciences-Po and the Ecole Normale Supérieure and disseminate their ideas through the Gallimard publishing house and in the collection Proche-Orient des PUF directed by Gilles Kepel . They popularize them through Le Point and Le Figaro . Radio France Inter , disenchanted by the sociological interpretation it had helped to broadcast , now seems to be seduced : Nicolas Demorand evokes “ a rather formidable book on Jihadism ” about Hugo Micheron ’ s work .
Olivier Roy and Farhad Khosrokhavar are directors of studies at EHESS . Olivier Roy is director of research at the CNRS , while Farhad Khosrokhavar is director of the Observatoire de la radicalisation de la Fondation de la Maison des sciences de l ’ homme . Their books are published by Le Seuil , and their theses are relayed by Le Monde , L ’ Opinion , and L ’ Obs .
These divergent interpretations were reunited after Mohamed Merah ’ s assassination attempt on March 19 , 2012 against the Jewish school in Toulouse . This attack is interpreted by Gilles Kepel as a reference to the cease-fire in Algeria in March 1962 , that is to say , a historic symbolic act against French colonialism that would be perpetuated with regard to the youth of the suburbs . Olivier Roy sees in Mr . Merah ’ s action only the action of a “ lone wolf ,” an expression that will flourish in the media to explain jihadist terrorism . The attacks at the Bataclan in 2015 relaunched the war between the two enemy brothers . In Olivier Roy , Gilles Kepel denounced “ a [ henceforth ] naked king ” who refused to denounce Islamism for fear of falling into Islamophobia . As for programs of deradicalization , inspired by the sociological interpretation of Olivier Roy , they have been shown to be inefficient .
Behind this quarrel lies the importance , or not , of the religious in the jihadist phenomenon . Arabists emphasize it ; non-Arabists neglect it to the benefit of the social . The strength of Hugo Micheron ’ s work is to return to the field by highlighting the testimonies of actors of jihadism .
The Wolf in the Sheepfold
Two thousand Frenchmen left to make jihad , from 2012 to 2018 , in Afghanistan and Bosnia and within the Islamic State in Syria or Iraq , but behind these departures , Hugo Micheron explains that about fifteen places grouped together almost all departures . When the phenomenon concerns a city , the departures concern a single district of the city and even a single bar of buildings . The geography of
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